For a New ‘Rainbow,’ Donald McKayle Is Still Explaining

For a New ‘Rainbow,’ Donald McKayle Is Still Explaining

The most ferocious sound in the room at the David H. Koch Theater was coming from an 85-year-old man in a wheelchair. But the years melted away as that man — Donald McKayle, the modern dance and Broadway choreographer known for exploring African-American themes in his work — watched a recent rehearsal of “Rainbow ’Round My Shoulder,” his 1959 masterwork about life on a chain gang, with the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company…